In July 2012, the disappearance of Star City teen Skylar Neese shook the Morgantown area to its core. And the events that unfolded in the months following were almost too unbelievable to be true.
After taking part in the search for Skylar, her two best friends, Sheila Eddy and Rachel Shoaf, confessed to the carefully planned and brutal murder of their friend on the evening of July 6, 2012.
Eddy and Shoaf picked Skylar up from her Star City home and drove to a back road in Brave, Pa., where they stabbed her to death. The motive given by Skylar’s murderers? They just didn’t want to be friends with her anymore.
Now, almost 11 years after the murder that captured national attention, Shoaf is scheduled for a parole hearing on May 9. Eddy was sentenced to life in prison, but Shoaf was sentenced to 30 years with the chance for parole after 10, due to her eventual cooperation with investigators.
Skylar’s parents, Dave and Mary Neese, have been “shook to pieces” about the possibility of a “narcissist that’s coming up for parole,” Dave said, referring to Shoaf.
“It’s our hope that the parole board understand that this convicted murderer chose the date of July 6, 2012, to savagely stab and gouge Skylar to death for one particular reason … because she was going to church camp on July 7 and she wanted to make sure she did it before she went to church camp,” Dave said. “If that’s not sick, I have never seen sick.”
The still-grieving father said he knew the girls were truly evil after he heard that bit of information, along with Shoaf’s confession to police that when Skylar was lying there gasping for her last breath, she looked at her and said “Die, b—-.”
“It doesn’t matter what kind of prison you have — you can’t fix evil and you can’t fix crazy and that’s what both of these girls are. They have just proved it time after time,” Dave said. “She’s coming up for parole and she wants a second chance. Did Skylar get one? It just makes me so angry that they even gave her that, but I understood.”
Dave noted Shoaf has gotten married and divorced during her prison stay, a privilege he didn’t realize was allowed and another experience Skylar will never have.
“So, she doesn’t deserve anything. She needs to stay where she is,” he said.
The Neeses are apparently not the only ones opposed to Shoaf’s release, if a recent change.org petition is any indication.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition started two weeks ago by Neese family friend Barry Bach — titled “Keep Rachel Shoaf behind bars for the 2012 murder of Skylar Neese” — had well over 22,730 signatures with more people signing by the minute.
“I have never met two kinder or more beautiful people in my life,” Bach wrote in the petition’s comments. “I’ve never seen a pair of eyes more broken than Mary’s. I have never seen a man more crushed than Dave. I have stood on the very spot where Skylar’s body was found with Dave and wept with him. I have seen the beautiful memorial that he has created where these savage beasts took his only child.
“I’m signing because no matter how much she eventually cooperated, or how well she’s behaved in prison, she doesn’t deserve to be paroled early,” Bach said.
Dave, who has not been watching the growing number of signatures, said, “That just blows me away. That is quite a number. I didn’t have any idea it was that high.
“I thought after 10 years a lot of people would have forgotten and moved on and not thought about it anymore,” he said. “Of course, it’s a nightmare I live every day — but wow, it really seems like people remember Skylar.”
An opposing change.org petition titled “Support Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy Rehabilitation” has gained around 200 supporters since being posted last week by an anonymous user.
The Neese family is hopeful the overwhelming number of people who don’t believe Shoaf should be released will weigh heavily on the minds of the parole board.
“It just all shows that Skylar was a good kid and her memory is legacy. Long after these girls are forgotten, Skylar will be remembered through Skylar’s Law and Skylar’s Promise,” Dave said. “She is living on and that makes me so happy.”
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